For the second year in a row, Santa Barbara City College has been named one of the top ten community colleges in the country.

The Aspen Institute said Sept. 5 that it selected the Santa Barbara campus as one of the finalists for its Community College Excellence prize, one of the highest honors a junior college in the country can earn. The million dollar prize will be awarded in March.

SBCC was selected from a pool of more than 1,000 community colleges based on student learning outcomes, degree and college completion, labor market success in students securing jobs after college and minority and low-income student success.

“Santa Barbara City College is doing an excellent job of providing students with the knowledge and skill sets they need for success – whether they’re transferring to a four-year college like nearby UCSB or heading directly into the job market,” Josh Wyner, executive director of the Aspen Institute’s College Excellence Program, said in a news release. “It’s particularly impressive to see SBCC maintaining its innovative approaches at a time of continuing state education budget cuts.”

The school has a three-year graduation and transfer rate of 48 percent for Hispanic students, who comprise more than 30 percent of the student body. That rate is well above the national average, according to the news release.

The South Coast campus is the only one in California selected as a finalist.

The other finalists are  Brazosport College in Lake Jackson, TX; Broward College in Fort Lauderdale, FL; College of the Ouachitas in Malvern, AR; Kingsborough Community College – CUNY in Brooklyn, NY;  Lake Area Technical Institute in Watertown, SD; Santa Fe College in Gainesville, FL; Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College in Cumberland, KY; Walla Walla Community College in Walla Walla, WA and West Kentucky Community and Technical College in Paducah, KY.